The Battle of New York
by TheMaster4444
Summary: A year has past since the Defeat of Gaea and 2 since Apophis'. Peace has come for both sides of New York. But when Percy is found standing over an ankle-biter's dead body, a sinister magician kidnaps him and seals him away for an ungodly spell. But this unseen villain needs one massive amount of energy to power his diabolical machinations. Energy only attainable by war.
1. Chapter 1

The Battle of New York

Chapter 1

A Scream and Silence

Percy POV

_Someone always dies. You think I would have learned that after watching so many friends and allies meet their end, but no. I grasped and pawed for the shredded remains of my ignorance. Of course the enemy had always been obvious. I thought when I eventually came out of that carcass of rock that the new foe was just as clear despite the nagging feeling at the back of my mind. And the price of foolishness was the life of another._

_Ironic how this catastrophe both began and ended with me standing over a child's body, Riptide drawn and ready for battle._

It was a pleasantly warm June afternoon in Manhattan. Car horns blared as drivers shrieked at each other to move their metal rear ends. Pigeons unleashed their daily barrage of waste as bystanders ran for cover and shouted various curses at the seemingly perfect blue sky. The sun's rays glared off the tops of skyscrapers. A very unsavory smell (trust me, I know what I'm talking about) wafted over from between the line of buildings on my right. Doubtless, the East River was in dire need of another sand dollar.

So on a typical Manhattan day of grief, misery, and violent swearing, I was happy. Why not school was out, I was heading over to meet my girlfriend at Central Park, and over the year that had passed since the Prophecy of the Seven had finished and we stomped old dirt face Gaea back into the ground, no demigod hungry monsters had come charging out of the wood work to try and eat a Percy sandwich.

Oh, did I mention I'm a half-blood? If you don't know that means you should stop reading now because you won't understand a word.

Now where was I? Oh right, I was walking over to Central Park to meet with my girlfriend Annabeth before we went down to Camp Half-Blood when a piercing young scream shattered my peaceful day. I whipped my head around wildly searching for the victim.

The mortals didn't seem to have noticed anything. They went about their normal business of walking, driving, and shouting at each other to stick their heads in very, interesting places. I thought for a moment that maybe I had imagined the desperate cry. Then I remembered that these were mortals and rushed down an alley to the scream's origin with Riptide already uncapped in my hand.

The route came out on the bank of the East River with the mouth that funneled into New York Harbor to my left and the grouchy overgrown stream itself about ten meters ahead.

But in front of my eyes was an image that shall forever be scarred into my mind. At my feet, so low to the ground that I almost stepped on it was the still bleeding corpse of a six year old girl with a hole right where her heart should had been.


	2. Chapter 2

The Battle of New York

Chapter 2

I Unleash My Wrath (And Fail Miserably)

Felix POV

When Carter allowed me to go with Julian and Shelby into Manhattan as part of a special reconnaissance squad, I felt elated like no time since the Battle of the First Nome and decided to follow the path of the god of ice (still haven't his name). The week after though, it had been back to regular lessons instead now there were crabby old geezers teaching in place of the older kids, which wasn't exactly a step up. Every day had pretty much been torture since then except for those incredible hours of Whatever Works (Magic Problem Solving 101 to Carter). It was pretty much the only class that the Kanes still taught personally. Sometimes Carter was there, sometimes Sadie or Walt or even Zia from time to time. I didn't care. At least they didn't yell at me just for going a little crazy with the ice. It's not like that guy didn't get his beard of the wall eventually.

Anyway, I thought no one trusted me anymore. Except Julian and I'm pretty sure that's because I helped him work out that hilarious prank on Cleo (she flipped out when she saw the icicles in those scrolls). We stuck together like glue after we got punished for that.

Julian isn't exactly Carter's favorite trainee but he does know that Julian can take care of himself with a sword. So when Carter was finally tired of not knowing anything about Manhattan and was getting really uncomfortable with the increased magical activity on their side of the river that was emanating from Long Island Sound, he knew exactly who he could count on to go look around a bit. He told Julian to choose any two people he wanted to take with him and head over across the water. Apparently Julian held him to his word on the anybody matter because next thing you know, he's pulling Shelby and me out of class( which I'm not complaining about) and telling us to grab any gear we need and get ready to go.

Now the oldies from the First Nome were understandably pissed about this arrangement. None them were my biggest fan especially Marcus, whose beard I may have accidently turned into an icicle. But Shelby! She was seven years old. So what if she's the top of her class and good with bringing pictures to life. Even if she was on the frontline against Apophis, she had just graduated from being an ankle-biter. The risk of putting her in a place as dangerous as Manhattan was too great.

But Carter had given Julian his word and Carter was pharaoh so his word was law. Except to Sadie, or so she claimed. Either way, the team set out for the west bank within the hour.

I had my bag stored in my own personal Duat locker stocked with my staff, my wand, some ink and papyrus, and a few dozen personally crafted penguin shabti. When they didn't explode, they were awesome!

We had just left the Brooklyn Bridge. "So" I whispered to Julian "what are we doing first? Nabbing a hot dog or sightseeing the Empire State Building?

"Neither" he responded. "We need to do what Carter ordered us to do or else he'll never send us back. So we'll some quick recon and then grab a hot dog."

"Brilliant Plan" I complimented. "Now if we could just switch those items around…"

"I hear voices" Shelby muttered in the background.

"All in your head sweetheart" Julian assured her. "Now" he said as he pulled out one of the impossibly compact folding maps. "I'll go tipi- I mean scout out Yankee Stadium."

"Isn't that in the Bronx?"

"I'm from Boston" he explained. "It's all New York to me. In the meantime, you and Shel will be- Shel? Shel!"

We both span around in a circle through the tide of pedestrians looking for our young friend. We spotted her just as she dived into a dark alley about fifty yards away. As fast as we could, the two of us waded through the mortals, which for Julian wasn't very fast because his feet were freaking huge. Finally, we got away from the current of people but a shrill scream suddenly raked through the air that instance. Immediately the pair of us gave each other horrified looks and picked up our sprint down the alley. When we came out, we saw a tall, black haired boy maybe seventeen years old boy in an orange t-shirt, brandishing a three foot bronze sword over a fallen object. With a start, I realized that the object was Shelby's body, and a stream of blood was cascading down her chest.

_No, no _Shelby couldn't be dead. She had so much talent, so much fire. She had been the little sister I'd never wanted but did after I meet her. Her future was too bright to let death's darkness claim it so soon.

Julian wasted no time with his outrage. In an instant his _khopesh_ was in his hand and his combat avatar around him, shining godly gold for the charge. Shouting an inaudible battle cry, Julian leapt at the boy standing there, with his blade ready for a killing stroke.

The boy moved faster than anyone I'd ever seen, even Carter. His hand went up instinctively and the river behind mirrored his flinch, sending an enormous gush of filthy East River water slamming into Julian, and blasting him straight into the brick wall of the nearest building. He stared at Julian's hawk warrior with astonishment and piqued interest. "Well that's new" he said.

Julian got up and charged again but was forced back down in the blink of an eye by a hurricane that had suddenly appeared around the guy, battering both of us with howling winds and soaking rain. I knew I had to do something; otherwise this guy would kill Julian just like Shelby. Calling my staff from the Duat, I uttered a word I'd been perfecting for two years. "_Se-kebeb"_ I shouted. _Make Cold._

Half a dozen shards of ice appeared out of thin air and rocketed toward tornado man. He saw the incoming projectiles coming in and swung his sword in a long arc that unleashed a thriving whip of water up against my missiles, deflecting them onto the wall where upon contact they shattered. The serpent also continued forward until it smacked me over head, sending me spiraling into the Julian, whose combat avatar promptly collapsed.

The guy stepped toward us. I realized that his shirt had words on it that read _Camp Half-Blood, Long Island, NY_. Not exactly helpful at the moment when he was stalking towards us with a hurricane and a sword. "Had enough?" he demanded.

I stole a glance at Julian. He stared me straight back through my eyes. He confirmed what I already knew. There was no way we could win, not against this guy. He was on Carter and Sadie's level. So we went with our only option. We ran away as fast as our legs could carry us.


	3. Chapter 3

The Battle of New York

Chapter 3

Sand it's Everywhere

Percy POV

I let the kids go.

It may have appeared to have been foolish when I had just beaten them with ease, but I was always merciful. They probably killed the poor little girl and were using her as bait to draw in someone else. Though seeing how they reckless the big one's fighting was, I doubted they were expecting anyone like me.

They weren't demigods. Not unless I had missed some spell or special powers in the six years since I had learned about my father's side of the world. Or maybe it was those weird weapons they carried. A boomerang sword and a six foot stick that shot ice and appeared out of thin air defiantly weren't half-blood standard issue. Of course I could have done a lot worse to them if I had wanted to.

During the Giant War, I was forced to augment my powers far beyond what I had ever thought possible. Water and moisture now answered to me wherever they were, no matter how thin. The whip I used on the smaller kid (how old was he? Twelve? Evil was recruiting earlier and earlier) was only the least of my new abilities. The only moisture that could defy my will was the substances inside other's body.

As the two kids retreated down the alley way, I could only shed a tear and begin to worry. For all I knew those children could have been the little girl's friends who had come in to see me standing over her. And if they could see through the mist that meant they also saw Riptide, which didn't exactly encourage my innocence if I was holding a yard long sword over their friend's corpse.

_No. _I shot to attention at the silky alluring voice that appeared in my mind. _They are evil and cursed. They are the House of Life and they will destroy all you hold dear. Look across the water if you don't believe me. _

Now please don't think I am stupid. I really didn't expect to see anything on the other bank; I had looked at Brooklyn a thousand times. There were just a couple of warehouses. But something about the voice was compelling sort of like when you look at Aphrodite and couldn't quite decide what she looked like. This sound inside my head was similar, forming its words in such a familiar and comforting way that I just had to check the river one more time, and lo and behold, a five story, glowing, gold building appeared on one of the warehouse roofs out of thin air.

This thing was not the biggest building I'd ever seen but the hulking behemoth was defiantly up there. I couldn't make out much from the distance I was at but there was some giant turkey creature on the roof.

_Their main headquarters is beneath the sphinx and Great Pyramids in Egypt but this is their forward base for the coming assault on your camp. There are scores of combat magicians similar to the ones you just faced only better trained and more powerful._

I was terrified. Sure I was able to defeat two of these King Tuts without breaking a sweat but I was powerful and experienced. Most of our campers were new recruits who had just been brought to camp over the past year of peace. They couldn't fight of much more than a common cold, much less an army of evil wizards. "How do we stop them?" I asked, desperately.

Suddenly, a vortex of swirling sand opened up right in front of me. The portal was about the size and shape of an average door to a house. I must have been having delusions because I could swear I felt the tiny grains pelting me again and again while the heat of a desert washed over me in unbearable quantities.

_Step through here Percy Jackson. Step through here and the House of Life will be stopped. I promise you._

The voice was so infinitely alluring. If it said that all I had to do to stop these evil magicians was step through that window of desert, then I would. I would protect camp. Protect my friends. Protect Annabeth.

A different voice suddenly echoed behind me. It shouted something faded but familiar. Turning around, I saw a blond girl with gray eyes running towards me from the alley. My head was screaming at me to recognize her but I just couldn't.

_You must move now!_

Obeying the command of the original voice, I swiveled back to the tunnel of sand and stepped in.

Immediately I blacked out.

Villain's POV

The villain stood over Percy's unconscious form in the underground tomb with a smirk of a job well done. "Poor, poor Percy" he mocked. "I guess I did forget to mention that demigods don't exactly mix well with portal travel. And with this little spell" he performed some crucial magic "you'll stay nice and sleepy as long as you're in this little hole."

The devious villain couldn't help but chuckle. The plan had gone off without a hitch. He had lured the little pipsqueak away from her "commanders" and stabbed her in the back with a celestial bronze knife. As he had heard, Percy immediately ran to help someone in need with his sword drawn and ready. The pathetic amateurs Carter had been training had seen him standing over poor Shelby's dead body and charged him recklessly.

And Percy's performance was exactly as satisfying as advertised. Sure our diabolical mastermind wouldn't have let Felix and Julian live, but Jackson's raw power was as impressive beyond what our villain could have hoped. Then a few persuasive magic words and he had Jackson and all the time he needed to prepare him for the ritual. Meanwhile, Carter and Sadie's outrage will lead to an assault on Camp Half-Blood, which would without a doubt drag Camp Jupiter into the brawl. "I'll go make sure the kiddies play nice Percy. You can just sleep well."


	4. Chapter 4

The Battle of New York

Chapter 4

Before the Storm or Something

Annabeth's POV

Everyone was looking at me like I was crazy.

All the head counselors were arrayed around the rec room ping-pong table. Chiron sat at the opposite head of the table from me with Leo, Piper, Clarisse, Travis, Will, and Nico on his right side. On my right were Pollux, Butch, Lou, Katie, and Clovis (who had happily slept through the entire thing). Everywhere I looked, jaws were open and eyes milked disbelief. I could understand their astonishment. Even for a demigod, my story sounded insane. The only reason I didn't believe so was because Chiron was stroking his beard, deep in thought. He knew what was happening, or at least he could explain some of the peculiar occurrences I witnessed.

Clarisse was opening her mouth to say something, then did something rare and thought better of speaking. Leo gladly picked up there. "So let me get this straight. You got a 'feeling' that Percy was in trouble and ran to the banks of the East River. When you got there you shouted his name and he looked right at you. And then he promptly walked into a magical floating doorway of sand and disappeared?"

I all ready thought I was off my rocker slightly simply because Percy disappeared (again.) But just hearing it come from Leo, the resident crazy mechanic, sounded completely and utterly insane.

"Don't forget the giant golden mansion on the warehouses" Clarisse reminded him with her head in her hand.

"Yeah the gold house too" he added.

"So where exactly is this mansion and how soon can we ransack- I mean visit it" Travis inquired.

"I know it isn't normal" I reminded everyone sternly.

"We're demigods Annabeth, we're used to things not being normal" Piper pointed out. "But what you're telling us is impossible. Since when does sand have anything to do with Greek Mythology?"

"Nothing" Chiron interjected. "There is nothing about sand in all of our legends and those of our gods, at least nothing of any real significance. Then again, I believe the phrase is _there is more than one fish in the sea."_

"Wait so you haven't told us everything? Even after the whole Percy- Jason switcheroo catastrophe?" I felt completely betrayed. Chiron was our teacher and he kept hiding things from us that we needed to know.

Chiron shook his head in dismay. "Please Annabeth try to understand. The Romans were practically the mirror image of us here. The two camps were simply two sides of the same coin. This matter is something else entirely. The vortex you saw was a portal, the main method of long range travel of the House of Life, a group of magicians who both worship and draw power from the Egyptian gods."

"Back up" Leo shouted, sweeping his arms to both sides as if clearing a desk. "Egyptian gods, as in that guy with the dog head."

"Anubis" Piper supplied.

"Yeah him, are they going to come here and kill us because they think Percy killed one of their servants?" I stared daggers at him. "Which he totally didn't" he quickly added.

"Doubtful" Chiron assured us. "If Annabeth's account is accurate then the House likely has already kidnapped Percy. We shall do everything we can to recover him and just in case, we will prepare our defenses. Clarisse mobilize the cabins. Travis take stock of our supplies. Nico, I need you to shadow travel to Camp Jupiter and get reinforcements from Jason and Reyna."

As Nico dissolved into darkness, I glimpsed Piper perking up at the prospect of Jason coming; even it was for an armed conflict and probably with the entire Roman Navy with him. The two of them had remained a couple after the Giant War even though Jason had to return to Camp Jupiter to attend to his duties as praetor. They had a model long distance relationship, satisfied with nightly contact and thrilled at any opportunity to be physically together.

Chiron continued rattling off orders. "Butch, get your pegesi scouts in the air. Leo, get over to Bunker Nine and get the Navy in the air."-

He was interrupted when Connor, Travis' twin brother burst into the rec room, literally falling on the ping-pong table. He pointed his finger outside toward the beach. "You guys are going to want to see this."

Carter's POV

I stood at the bow of my rowboat in the sky at the wind flapped in my face. My initial bloodlust for revenge had by now faded enough that reason was reasserting itself and I was thinking, _what in dad's name am I doing? _From what Amos had told me, Camp Half- Blood was at least a hundred strong. I had maybe thirty- five air and sea enabled rowboats each holding two magicians, the entirety of Brooklyn House except for Walt, Sadie, and Khufu who had stayed behind to take care of the ankle- biters while the rest of the Nome made war (Sadie did so grudgingly, only ceding to my wishes because Walt agreed to stay behind as well.)

Trying to block the increasing worries from my mind, I recalled my fury when Julian and Felix gave their report. When they had come back an hour and a half early, I knew something was wrong. But I never imagined the horror they returned with. Shelby dead? How could the simple reconnaissance mission have gone so wrong? I immediately called a meeting of myself, Sadie, Zia, and Walt. We patched Amos in from the First Nome via scrying bowl. The news brought cries of outrage from everyone. I promised swift retaliation as soon as possible but we didn't have a target yet.

That is when Amos spoke up. He explained his theories on what had happened and our possible suspects. He said that due to the location the Greek demigod seemed most likely. Quickly he told us everything he knew about them, including their location at Camp Half- Blood. Without hesitation, I rallied the Twenty First Nome, giving them all the information I could and declaring our plan of action. Ask them to give up the murderer peacefully and if they refused, we would let loose at them with everything we had. The strategy was greeted with battle cries and chants of war.

Now as we began our final descent on the peaceful looking strawberry valley, I wasn't sure this army of heavily armed, battle ready warriors would be intimidated by a few score of rowboats. Zia grasped my hand. I could feel warmth emanating off her, comforting and assuring me. I was eternally thankful that she was by my side; otherwise I would probably have been shaking at that moment.

My field of vision of the camp did not bode well for my small fleet. I saw flying horses (I knew I really saw one) branching out at us to see what they were up against. There were dozens of kids in armor forming into phalanxes on the center green between a rectangle of cabins. As we landed on the beach, I saw directly in front of my boat, a muscular blond girl with a knife and a Yankee's cap on her belt, a Latino elf that was wearing a tool belt, a beautiful girl looked ready to go to a spa or fight to the death, and a centaur whose human half was wearing a tweed jacket.

I stepped out of the rowboat as we touched down. The blond walked up to me and extended a hand. "Annabeth Chase" she introduced herself.

I took the offered hand and clasped it. "Carter Kane, now how's about you give us our murderer and we'll be on our way."

Annabeth gave me a look that would have made Horus run for cover. "You better not be talking about my boyfriend."

My only thought; oh, crap.


	5. Chapter 5

The Battle of New York

Chapter 5

Negotiations, Oh this'll be Fun

Annabeth's POV

Okay, so maybe I was a little hostile toward Carter at the beginning. Fine I didn't even give him a chance. But seriously, you would think a guy would have a little more tact than just barging into your home and declaring one of your friends a murderer.

Lucky for him, the girl next to him took over before I slapped him. Actually, judging by the chemistry between the two, I'd say she was more than just a normal girl to him. "If your boyfriend is a homicidal child killing maniac, then sorry but we are." Did I say lucky? I meant completely dooming.

Fury lit my eyes. "Do you want to lose your head?" I snarled at the prim girl. I hadn't really looked at he in detail before but now I saw that she had copper skin, amber eyes, and pajama? No, she really was wearing loose fitting white linen pajamas to a diplomatic meeting. I heard Leo's muffled snickers in the background.

Pajama girl suddenly flicked her wrist and a six foot white staff appeared in her hand out of nowhere. The tip was alight with fire before I even blinked. "Zia" Carter pleaded softly.

Zia ignored him. "How about a heart like your lover boy took from Shelby" she screamed.

I plucked my dagger from my belt and took a step forward ready to lunge. Before I could strike however, Piper put herself between Zia and I. "Stop it" she ordered, her voice layered with charmspeak. "Both of you, you're acting like little kids."

Immediately, I felt the fight drain out of me. My muscles relaxed and my knife came down. Zia seemed to be affected as well. She extinguished her flame and made her staff disappear again, probably their version of sheathing a weapon. "Sorry" we admitted grudgingly.

Chiron settled after that disaster was averted. "Well now that the first meeting has gone so well, I am Chiron, activities director of Camp Half- Blood."

Leo flashed a thumbs up. "Name's Leo, genius extraordinaire and what you just witnessed was the incredible skill of our resident peacemaker and beauty queen, Piper."

Piper blushed and gave Leo a disapproving look but then turned to Kane with an apologetic smile. "We are terribly sorry about this and your loss. We didn't know anything about any recent deaths in the House of Life. Please explain what happened so we can help you bring the killer to justice."

Carter seemed satisfied with that arrangement though Zia still looked to be barely holding back. Fortunately, it appeared that he was in charge. "About a hour ago, we sent a scouting a scouting party into Manhattan."

"Why would you need to scout Manhattan?" Leo asked. "Don't you Egyptians have maps?"

"We were always told to stay out of Manhattan when we could" Carter informed us.

"Oh" Leo answered, logic dawning on his mind. "Sounds sort of how we were told to stay away from the Bay Area." He was looking prominently at Chiron the whole time.

"Yeah so back to the story" Carter said, clearly feeling he had come in on a conversation that was already half done. "A member of the reconnaissance troop was separated during initial arrival and when the other magicians caught up to her, she was dead. Standing over her was a teenage boy with a bronze sword in his hand and a t-shirt that looked exactly like yours."

"What did he look like?" Chiron asked.

"Black hair, muscular, sea green eyes" Carter listed.

"That could be anyone" I pointed out. "How did he beat your scouts?"

"The survivor s of the team reported that he utilized control over water and summoned a hurricane" Zia supplied.

"Sounds like Percy" Piper admitted. She caught me sneering at her. "But" she countered "Percy is one of our greatest heroes. He doesn't kill unless he absolutely has to and even then he usually wriggles out of the deed."

"Sounds like a coward" sneered Zia.

"If you had ever met Percy you would realize he will always be on the front line" Piper promised. "Besides, Annabeth saw Percy a few hours ago as well. Tell what you saw Annabeth."

Knowing that the cursed magicians already had person captive, I decided to play along for now. So I recited back the strange behavior I witnessed from Percy and watching him walk into the vortex of sand.

Carter protested "that is impossible. The doorway of sand you described was actually a portal."

"Yes" Chiron said. "We were aware of that."

"But you don't understand" Carter insisted. "A portal can't just materialize from a magicians will. They need to be anchored at their creation point by a powerful artifact like an obelisk or sphinx."

"Funny" I mocked. "I don't seem to remember seeing an obelisk on the banks of the East River." Chiron and Piper were looking at me like I was on fire but I didn't care. Last year I lost eight months of my life with Percy because of Hera's crazy scheme. There was no way I going to let a bunch of carnival rejects take him away from me.

Carter meanwhile had finally reached his limit of insults. "Are you calling me a liar?" he asked incredulously.

"Unless you feel like correcting yourself, yes" I confirmed.

"Guys" Piper pleaded. "This isn't help"-

Suddenly, a bolt of sapphire lightning lanced from behind Carter and Zia and ripped through Piper's right shoulder. The daughter of Aphrodite spun around with smoke trailing and smacked into the sandy beach face down. She wasn't moving."

_Betrayal, _whispered a voice in my head.

I redrew my knife, ready to run the magicians trough at first chance. The cowards were looking behind them as if they didn't already know perfectly well who had cast that magic bolt. "If she's'-

"She isn't dead" Chiron stated. "She is just unconscious. We need to"-

Another blue bolt flashed from the Egyptian side, striking Chiron right where his human half met his stallion legs. Before my eyes, my teacher crumpled to the white sands.

My fury escalated beyond containment. I barely managed a glance behind me to watch Leo pull a pair of war hammers out of his tool belt before I charged straight at Carter. The dark boy conjured a strange sickle sword out of the air but was caught off guard when I quickly closed the distance, barely parrying my first series of stabs.

But even as I gained the early upper hand I knew that any hope for a peaceful solution had gone when Piper and Chiron fell. I was engulfed in a duel with Carter as Leo began bringing down his hammers on Zia. Meanwhile, overhead the fleet of rowboats advanced like piranhas to prey upon Camp Half-Blood, their crews lobbing fireballs and dropping stone soldiers. War had come and I swore to all the gods that I would get Percy back, even if I had to tear the Pyramids (a site I formally admired) down stone by stone, brick by brick. There would be a reckoning.


	6. Chapter 6

The Battle of New York

Chapter 6

Flames of War

Carter's POV

Since when is lightning blue? When Zia and I saw the streak of sapphire collide with Piper, we turned around to see who in the entire Nome would be stupid enough to shoot the apparently only demigod who actually had any sense in their head. We looked at each other and silently asked the same question. _Did you order that?_ Both of us realized that whoever had fired that shot had done so by their own will.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to try convincing Annabeth and Leo of that because another bolt of cyan struck Chiron before we could say a word. And the pair of demigods charged after that insult. I summoned my _khopesh _from the Duat but wasn't able to bring up my combat avatar before Annabeth swooped in with a barrage of thrusts. It was all I could do to parry or dodge them all.

The other magicians must have caught sight of the duels on the beach. In a massive wave of wood and magic, the flying gunboats unleashed a hail of fire and death upon the cabins and green of Camp Half-Blood. Fireballs, meteors, and a very large chunk of ice (probably Felix) rained down, ripping through the houses and surrounding plants as suddenly materialized women (were they green?) and people with mountain goat legs wearing tree bark desperately poured water on them. Stone shati statues were dropped from high above only to sprout to full sized warriors with round shields and sharpened rock swords when they were a foot from the ground. The instant army trudged onto the cabin green and began to battle the assembled half-bloods.

A sudden flash of sharp pain on my forearm brought back to my own fight to the death. While I had been admiring the gunboats' beautiful strategic bombardment (having a war god in your head for awhile will make you do that) Annabeth had slipped under my guard and landed a slash on my elbow. The wound wasn't actually much, just a knick really, but it was proof that I needed to step up my game.

I fell back immediately, trying to put enough distance between us so I could benefit from my blade's longer reach. Annabeth must have been experienced fighting with a knife though because she was careful to stay close and kept the pressure up. At the rate the duel was progressing, I wasn't going to win fighting fair. That was why cheating was invented.

In the briefest of pauses I saw my chance. "_N'dah!" _I shouted, thrusting my hand forward. The hieroglyph for protect blazed for a moment before a wall of blue energy rose to protect me. Annabeth's next strike, which would have taken me in the throat, bounced harmlessly of my new cyan shield. Her face flashed for a second with confusion and disbelief and then resumed its merciless mask of rage. She stabbed at the protection spell again and again, creating tiny fault lines that emanated from her point of impact.

As I gazed at my slowly decaying respite, I realized that I was completely out of breath. It had been three years since I'd faced an opponent that had given me a run for my money in a contest of blades and that had been Set himself. Now I was coming to the very inconveniencing conclusion that I was out of practice against swordsman of equal skill. I could only use the lower or moderate tiers of my skills when training initiates, even the more advanced ones like Julian. My skill was simply no longer a match for a mistress of blades like Annabeth. Of course, I did have one last trick up my sleeve.

With a moment of concentration and a deep breath for theatrical effect, summoned the battle avatar of Horus. I was suddenly encased in the familiar shell of a fifteen foot tall golden warrior with the head of a hawk. Looking down, I saw Annabeth's face morph into a perfect example of shock and awe. To further intimidate her, I took a casual swing with my holographic blade and shattered my own protection spell. Glass like blue energy flew in all directions and dissipated into dust. A smirk crossed my falcon headed face. "Game on."

Bringing my new _khopesh _down in a chop, I nearly sheared Annabeth in half but she rolled out of the way as the blade's impact created a new chasm in the ground. I turned to make a second cut to take of her waist but I caught was the grim determination on her face and the motion of her putting on the Yankees baseball cap that had been on her waist. Then, she disappeared.

Now I had seen some impressive invisibility spells but this one was ridiculous. Creating one by normal magical means required a wax statue and a small wrap of cloth. She should have had to take several seconds to prepare all that but she just went; _put on a baseball hat, oh look I'm invisible. Oh wait, you can't._

The only good thing about the sudden standstill was now I could survey what was going on around me. The battle up by the cabins was going well. A few shabti were missing their heads and several more were ruined husks but not a single gunboat had been lost and they swarmed through the air like flies, launching blazing projectiles at everything within range and tearing up the terrain. A couple of campers seemed to be making a run for a cliff face in the woods but a squad of row boats were descending on them like birds of prey.

The impending total rout of the Greeks perked me up so much I forgot the dynamic duel going on behind me. Zia had encased herself in a protective circle (though her wand was lying as charred splinters on the ground next to her) and was throwing everything she had at Leo, who was smashing a pair of twin war hammers against the barrier. Somehow he was unfazed no matter how much fire Zia sent barreling his way, while his hammers were slowly reducing Zia's formidable defense.

I was about to move to decapitate the Latino elf when I heard a taunting call behind me. "Hey, bird brain!" Whipping around, I saw Annabeth with her Yankee's hat in one hand with a strange armored bracelet on, and in the other one, a shotgun? Where had she gotten a shotgun?

The blond pumped the weapon with mercy absent from her eyes and adrenaline moving her muscles. "Meet bird shot!" She pulled the trigger and dozens of bronze pellets leapt out of the twin barrels.

I pulled my arms in an X to shield my face from the deadly swarm but a couple clipped my avatar, sending me spinning. When my vision was clear once again, Annabeth had returned to shadows.

"Aagh" came a shout from behind me. I turned to see that Leo had finally broken down Zia's circle and was now crushing the skull of a tiger that I'm pretty sure was once Zia's staff. My girlfriend herself was now five yards away, gathering energy to unleash a Pillar of Fire, the most powerful technique a fire elementalist could cast.

Leo stood overbearing before her, his hammers gathering momentum as he swung them in circles by his sides. "Don't" he warned. "You might not have realized this, but I'm not flammable." One of his hammers suddenly ignited in flames. Zia and I gazed at it with amazement. No wonder Zia's fire attacks hadn't worked. Leo was a fire user himself. "Let's see if you are" he proposed with a sinister grin spreading across his face. He hurled the flaming hammer straight at Zia. Fortunately, Zia was able to skillfully dodge the brick on a stick. The trench it left in the ground was similar in size to an airplane crash.

Leo began to wind up his other hammer and I moved to stop him. But before I reached him, a blast struck me from behind, one that would have normally killed me but in my avatar was just like a very hard push. I fell flat on my face and was barely able to twist back onto my feet. My best guess, Annabeth used Leo as a distraction to reload and fire her shotgun, only this time loaded with slugs.

We were doomed if the fight kept going on like this. Without magic, Leo would eventually overpower Zia and Annabeth would keep sniping at me while she hid invisibly from any counterattack I might launch. I needed to beat that hat or Zia and I were going to die no matter what the outcome at the green. Meanwhile, my big hawk headed battle avatar was slowly collapsing.

_Hawk headed. _That was it. Hawks had far better eyesight than humans. Maybe my magical hawk avatar could see past invisibility if I put enough effort into it. So I poured all my concentration into my vision, forcing myself to form more like when I transformed into a falcon than when I was a human.

There! It wasn't much just a hazy outline of a teenager girl in the trees, but it was the best I had. I swung my _khopesh _full force at the shadow.

And struck home! The cutting edge of the blade missed Annabeth herself, but the sword sheared the damn shotgun in two and the flat of the blade sent her flying into a tree, her baseball laying yards away. She stood up, but leaned heavily on the trunk behind her.

She's trapped. A mouse in a corner, I thought with glee. Victory was mine. I lifted my giant golden hand out before me. "_Ha-wi!" Strike._ A titanic blue fist burst from my combat avatar, a cornered demigod its only target.

Annabeth smacked her armored bracelet and the forearm covering expanded into a shield a meter in diameter. The surface was pure shining bronze and was so reflective I thought it was a mirror for a moment.

_Mirror._ "Oh, crap", I guessed what would happen before the fist actually hit me.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter**

**Please Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

The Battle of New York

Chapter 7

Annabeth's POV

Over the River and Through the Woods, Right into the Monster's Jaws

I have to say, Leo discovering the works of Archimedes in Rome was one of the greatest achievements of any half-blood. The lost scrolls and spheres provided decades of the world's most ingenious demigod of all time's finest work. The data from those ancient libraries contained knowledge of weaponry and defenses that shaped the Argo III class dual terrain trireme, the main battle warship of both camps' navies and successor to the Argo II in Leo's chain of inventions of madness. I found some of the designs in the spheres to be truly enlightening, particularly one that expanded on the functions of my old mirror shield. Now, in addition to its former role as a surveillance tool, the circle of bronze was also collapsible into a bracelet like Thalia's protector Aegis and deflected magic back upon the caster. Apparently, that context also included Egyptian magic. Good thing too, because with the Mossberg 500 I'd snatched from one of the weapon caches I had hidden throughout camp destroyed, my Yankee's cap out of reach, and my knife( which I managed to recover when Percy and I had our unpleasant trip to Tartarus) useless, I was out of tricks otherwise.

As I regained my balance from Carter's sword strike, I saw the bird headed pain in the ass sprawled on his back, slowly recovering from his own giant glowing fist's attack. Our duel had gone up and down for me with high points usually being followed by devastating undercuts such as the indomitable combat avatar and the falcon eyes that were able to see me while I was supposed to be invisible, but with this final turn around it appeared that I had at last gained a lasting advantage.

With dagger drawn, I carefully approached the downed warrior (after retrieving my invisibility hat of course). I slammed a foot down on the magician's throat, the avatar's chest. He gasped as he found the sudden pressure block jamming his windpipe, his eyes staring up begging for air. I almost decided to him the oxygen and just end his pain with a stab to the heart. Then I remembered that this was the person who took Percy from me again, kidnapped him of all things, and then blamed him for murder. No, he would suffer. I kept my shoe clamped down and answered his eyes' pleas for mercy will iron unbending hatred.

"No!" I heard someone scream.

I looked up just as Leo yelled a warning of "Heads up!" A blazing comet suddenly appeared in my vision, coming straight for me. Hastily, I brought up my shield to reflect the blast. Unexpectedly, the meteor still managed to unleash a shockwave through the bronze and into my body, forcing me to stagger a few feet backwards before the attack's trajectory was turned back. However, when the comet struck Zia, the fiery orb simply dissipated to her sides like wind when an arrow flew through it.

The female magician was alight with rage. A blazing orange aura surrounded her and her eyes were twin suns. Her skin, which had shown copper just a moment before, now flickered as if dancing in the light cast by Hestia's hearth. Her fists were now each engulfed in golden spheres of power. One look at them told me that if anyone, even Leo, got hit by one of them that they would pack one hell of a punch.

Unfortunately, I realized too late that the impressive display was merely a distraction. My eyes were so enchanted by Zia's atomic force that I didn't notice Carter making his move. The falcon headed warrior was now free of my foot and twisted under me and upward, knocking my legs out from under me and getting back on his feet at the same time. In the blink of an eye, Carter brought down his sickle sword to slice my head like a melon.

Fortunately, the big macho bird man forgot about my shield. I brought the bronze plate up to my face and felt the muffled impact of the descending blade. When I stood again, Carter's avatar was gone, its own sword strike being more than the battered armor could handle. The winded magician stumbled back, weapon still ready to fight, and came to be back to back with his blazing girlfriend.

The lull in the duel gave me a chance to see how the other campers were doing. In short, not good. Maybe one gunboat had been brought down and there weren't any signs of any others joining the lost one. A few pegesi had managed to lift into the sky, but they just didn't have the firepower to take down the enemy's airborne superiority. We needed the big guns, the really big guns. I turned to Leo "We need to get the fleet in the air. Head to Bunker 9 and fire up the Argo III, I'll figure out a way to take down comet girl."

Leo shook his head in refusal. "You can't take them both on and you know it. There isn't any wisdom in throwing your life away. We go together or not at all" he demanded.

I looked for flaws in his logic, hoping there was a plan he didn't see, a tactic he had overlooked. There wasn't any. I had barely held my own against Carter when I was fresh. There wasn't a strategy that I could use to beat both of the magicians while I was exhausted, even with my shield. "Fine" I conceded. "Let's go."

Leo grinned his mischievous devil grin and returned his war hammer to the infinite confines of his tool belt. When his hand emerged from the pocket it held a glass bottle containing a dark liquid. "So sun girl" he taunted Zia. The blazing girl turned toward him with twin fiery eyes. "Do you still want to test if you're flammable?" He threw the bottle straight at her but all we saw before we fled into the woods was the container shattering and the gas igniting on contact with Zia. We heard the explosion a few seconds later. And in these woods, we wouldn't be the only ones who did.

As we hurried through the trees and across the capture the flag stream, I worried heard loud crashes blunder about through the foliage. Hopefully, whatever was creating those booming noises wasn't looking for us. Of course as soon as I thought that, a shadowy blur the size of a tank smashed into me. I rolled with the pounce but still landed pinned to the ground. "WOOF!" barked the hellhound above me, layering me with mountains of saliva. I looked up to see a familiar black mastiff.

"Nice to see you Mrs. O'Leary" I greeted the smiling hellhound above me.

**Thank You for Reading.**

**Please Review all Chapters, past, present and future.**


	8. Chapter 8

The Battle of New York

Chapter 8 (Two Hours Later)

The Big Boys Arrive

Leo's POV

Hello all mortals! It is your favorite devilishly handsome demigod speaking. And if any of you are fans of Jason or Percy, I mean me, Leo Valdez. Jason is either trying to coax the senate into sending military aid or is already on his way. Gods know where Percy is. That guy really needs to stop disappearing between wars.

Back to Camp Half-Blood, since Annabeth and I ran into Mrs. O'Leary two hours ago, the battle had gotten only worse as the fighting progressed into the woods. The Egyptian gunboats threw down hails of their stone soldiers (Note to self: Study those later) and their armies pressed our forces back towards Bunker 9. Whenever we bunched together to formed a phalanx against the onslaught of statues, the formation was smashed by a meteor from above. But if we spread out to reduce the damage of the fire bombs, the stone army would converge on each individual demigod and slice them apart. Our troops were better trained and had knowledge of the terrain, but the House of Life's supply of rock men was endless. We needed to get our fleet in the air and take those gunboats or we'd be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. But to get to the Argos we had to get to Bunker 9 and as Harley and Jake's new burn wounds testified to, that was easier said than done.

I had to jump into the thick of the fighting to hold the lines. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. Leo fight? He'd get a scar on his perfectly beautiful face, plus he can't use a sword to save his life, right? Well no. True, I swing a sword like a baseball bat, but that isn't the only fish in the sea. With Frank's expert fitness help and a year of intense strength training, I can bench press one hundred pounds, enough to wield one of my specially modified and hand crafted war hammers in each hand and not tire. Of course the magical lightening enchantments on the celestial bronze help.

Anyway, when Annabeth sent Mrs. O'Leary back to the beach to retrieve Piper and Chiron, she also picked up the hammer I had thrown at Zia thinking it was a dog bone. She shadow travelled our unconscious friends to the medical base at the Big House and managed to weed her way through the enemy army and return my weapon to me. Then with both my mythical pounders drawn, I unleashed my smoking hot fury on the enemy soldiers.

The fighting was nearly as bad as it had been against Gaea's Legion at the House of Hades. I lost track of who I was fighting with at least a dozen times. In the beginning, Clarisse was by my side thrusting her electric spear through three stone warriors at a time and shouting at the magicians in the sky to come down and fight her one on one and how she was going to rip their guts out and feed them to Peleus the dragon for lunch. In the blink the of an eye, I was back to back with Will Solace as he fired arrow after arrow, taking off a statue's head with each calm shot. Next, a satyr was behind me wielding a tree trunk cudgel and whacking down rock soldiers like bowling pins. Unfortunately, one of those museum rejects got past his guard and filleted his stomach. The brave goat man morphed into a tiny sprout and I left the stone warrior a smoking pile of rubble.

Nothing made a difference. For each stone soldier we turned into a rock collection, five more took its place. Our rear ranks were suddenly getting hounded from above and were folding back toward the statue army. I turned to assist after destroying a stone attacker who was for some reason shaped like a penguin. That was when I saw a familiar cliff face just fifty meters away. Bunker 9.

I looked to Annabeth who was deflecting what fireballs she could and bashing the warriors in the face with her shield, causing the magic in them to back up and overload, blasting them to pieces. She turned back to see what I was looking at. She nodded in agreement. _Go, _she silently urged.

"Nyssa" I called to my red bandana wearing big sister, who was decapitating foes left and right with a massive battle axe. She saw me and I gestured in a _Come on _motion. Quickly, she pushed through our lines to me and we made a dash for the cliff. We had to jump a glowing fist and slide under a block of ice to stay alive, but soon we were within ten yards of the entrance. I filled with bright hope. If we could enter the bunker, the camp might just survive. Then all my hopes were dashed when the giant hawk warrior avatar descended in front of us from the sky, the landing shockwave sending us sprawling backwards. I looked up to see a familiar dark figure encased in the golden armor. "Carter" I spat.

The magicians' leader stood high and proud with his curved sword drawn and glowing, his avatar showing no evidence of his earlier duel with Annabeth. Power radiated off him, not the pure strength and raw energy of a god or giant, more like the rallying aura that Percy and Jason have. Something told me that I was lucky that Annabeth took him before. Now the deadly blonde and her endless bag of tricks were busy making sure that our fighting retreat didn't turn into a complete rout. Which left the big guy to me, great, just great.

I felt two more loud crashes behind me and turned to see a boy with big feet inside another combat avatar except that this one glowed blue instead of Carter's gold. Next him was a girl of similar age who stood on an elevated platform of earth that I'm pretty sure wasn't there two seconds ago. Carter pointed his sword at my throat. "I don't suppose you would like to surrender Leo" he asked hopefully. I was surprised. Carter sounded like he sincerely didn't want bloodshed. Of course if that was true, he wouldn't have fired on Piper and Chiron. The air suddenly crackled and I knew salvation had arrived.

I raised my hammers and brought flames to their heads. Nyssa brought her axe to a ready stance. "Over my dead body" I muttered.

"Alright then" the boy behind me responded gleefully as he charged.

"Julian, wait!" Carter ordered, holding out his massive glowing hand to stop.

But Julian wasn't listening. He barreled forward with his sword drawn back for a mighty slash that would take off both Nyssa's and my own head if not parried. Nyssa raised her axe to block the stroke. I knew it wouldn't be necessary.

Suddenly, a yellow and purple streak slammed into Julian, sending the avatar encased warrior flying into a tree with electricity swarming around him. His glowing armor collapsed and he slumped against the wooden trunk, unconscious. Above his fallen body, floating by his will over the winds alone was a tall, blond, muscular, teenage guy with a small scar on his lip and a gold _gladius _in his hand. His eyes shone a disapproving sky blue as if Julian was a puppy who had just chewed up a couch pillow. Sparks jittered through the air around him and everything I always had in me: strength, courage, inspiration gushed out of the flood gates of my spirit, all the inner qualities that I had always held in reserve came rallying to this man call. Jason Grace had arrived.

Carter's POV

Okay that is it. I have had it with these damn demigods. First, Annabeth throws every ace I have down the drain in our duel. Then, when they for some reason abandon the fight and leave Zia and I in a ring of fire, I have to drag Zia (who used up all her magical reserves putting on that little distraction for me) back to our magical row boat on the beach. Alright, I enjoyed that part because I got to carry Zia. But when we got to said beachhead, there was a black dog the size of an apartment lugging Piper and Chiron's unmoving bodies onto its back. When the monster saw me it snarled and lunged. I managed to dodge but when I drew my khopeshto fight, the creature had disappeared. That would be trouble if all the Greek creatures could do that.

Anyway, I got our ship in the air and joined the main assault force. The combined force of the endless _shabti _onslaught and the aerial barrage slowly forced the half-bloods back. The battle was ours for the taking. Even so, I was sad. I had come to the camp to take a murderer into custody, not start a war. I didn't let my sorrow show but I still detested slaughtering other human beings. I needed to stop this now.

Then I saw Leo and an unfamiliar girl break for the cliff. I saw an opportunity to hopefully obtain a peaceful surrender. Both my stamina and magical reserves had recovered over the past two hours. If the confrontation came to violence, which was entirely plausible, I would be ready. So I snatched up Julian and Alyssa and we plummeted to the Earth. Unfortunately, Julian was still bristling from Shelby's murder and disobeyed my commands of nonaggression. The flying kid was completely unexpected.

"About time" Leo scolded the newcomer. "What took you so long?"

The electric kid stretched his arms behind his back as if waking them up after a long flight. "What are you talking about?" He flipped his sword like a coin almost instinctively. "A little less than two hours is good time for Argo IIIs" he explained.

"I know. I designed them" Leo boasted. "How many did you bring?"

Blondie smirked. "All of them."

The girl with the massive two-headed battle axe looked up and around. "Where are they then, we're getting slaughtered here Jason."

Jason held up three fingers and began to countdown. "Three" he dropped a finger. "Two" only one remained. "One" he smiled confident smile. "Zero" he said menacingly.

I searched the surroundings for something and I didn't have to look far. A pair of fiery green explosions suddenly plumed forth from two of our gunboats. Directly above me were five **flying** triremes shredding the air as more of our gunboats fell as they neared the skies of war. The tide had just turned against us in a moment. Enemy reinforcements had arrived.

Apparently, our impending doom didn't satisfy Leo. "Five?" he inquired to Jason. "I thought you said you brought the entire fleet. Where's Reyna's half?"

Jason smiled his unnerving smile. "Oh, they're just completing the pincer" he informed us ominously.

Fear suddenly welled up in me. If the other part of this new demigod fleet was in New York, there was only one place they could be.

My horrible suspicions were confirmed when a kite (the bird) dived toward me with a thousand scars and scratches on it. Sadie instantly reverted to human form beside me, though she stumbled, heavily wounded. "Carter" she shouted. She sounded hoarse and out of breath. "We have to get out of here, NOW!"

REVIEW! PLEASE!


	9. Chapter 9

The Battle of New York

Chapter 9 (Several Minutes Earlier)

The Fall of Brooklyn House

Sadie's POV

Carter you thick headed idiot! Not bad enough that you went gallivanting off with your girlfriend to arrest a child killing psychopath who just happens to be half god, but you take every flying rowboat in the arsenal and all of our combat capable magicians, even Cleo. Cleo! And you left Walt and me to keep guard on the Nome and help Khufu watch over the ankle-biters, who were even more distraught, then the rest of us over Shelby's death. I suppose that is actually a good reason for having us stay. Gods know, you're completely rubbish with kids.

Walt and I were sitting on the couch in the Great Room, watching the young children draw pictures of various traumatically painful death scenes of tall adult males. Being preschoolers they all had vibrant imaginations of what the condemned should look like and how they should meet their end. An African American boy had a turquoise skinned boy getting devoured piece by piece by a giant wolf over a tiny simmering fire. Ria, Cleo's cousin, drew a green haired man being roasted by the surface of the sun. Nearby, a pair of boys were using Khufu's rainbow but to help decide what color they wanted the knives they were sticking through their demon clawed demigod. We defiantly had some valuable future contributors to society in the room.

Walt was laying down on the couch in just a black muscle shirt and jeans. I rested on top of him in khakis and a blue t-shirt. He held me in his lulling warm embrace and we just relaxed and watched the children draw pictures of their impending revenge. They would be so disappointed when we gave the bloke a trial. Then we'd butcher him until he screamed for mercy. Of course, that was only if Carter didn't screw up.

"What's taking them so long" Walt asked, voicing my thoughts. "It shouldn't take this long to negotiate the surrender of a fugitive."

"Relax" I comforted him, even though I was having the same dark suspicions. Something had gone horribly wrong. "We are talking about Carter here. Knowing him, the demigods are fast asleep because he read them some UN custody law." We both chuckled lightly at the crack at my dear brother. It was good hear him laugh. Even after two years, I couldn't get over the fact that he had come so close to death and only cheated his illness by merging with the god of death Anubis, who I also was mildly in love with. Fortunately, neither man nor god seemed to mind that I liked them both even as long as neither was cheated out of their time with me. Which, due to their unique predicament, was also the other one's.

I tilted my face up to meet his lips and we kissed. My hand slid up to ensure that his head remained on the correct course and pushed my own love farther up. He laid his arm over my stomach and hooked my belly button. Unfortunately, with the ankle-biters in the room we couldn't go any farther and defiantly not with Khufu. Thankfully, we were saved from disgusted childish looks by the sudden explosion. Wait that came out wrong.

A blistering shockwave that ricocheted off the walls and brought down tons of limestone ripped through the building. Walt and I jumped out of our romantic moment and were on our feet, ready for battle. Khufu pushed the two ankle-biters examining his rear end before a falling brick could crush them. My boyfriend and I stared each other in the eye. A collapsing mansion could only mean one thing; something very powerful had decided that we needed to be wiped of the Earth. Again.

"Get the kids to the portal and take them to the First Nome" I ordered Walt. My staff materialized from the Duat, "I'll go see who wants a couple teeth kicked in."

He nodded and yelled at Khufu and the initiates to head to the portal obelisk on the roof. His strong dark hands ushered the baboon and children up the stairs. Turning to give his deep brown eyes one last look at me, I gave him my best comforting smile. This didn't calm him down but at least reminded him that I was **not** a damsel in distress. I would turn anyone who tried to make me one into a lizard and though I'm sure Walt would make a very handsome reptile, I did not what to snog an iguana.

Rushing over to the window, I realized just how badly outgunned we were. Emerging on the horizon in some style of an attack formation, were five incredibly large flying boats. They must have been two football fields long and there were massive bronze shields lining the sides. In between the substantial plates of metal, the mouths of those multi-barreled Civil War cannon thingies stuck out facing the mansion, Gatling Guns that's what they were called, searching for visible targets among the destabilized building. Two huge mounted crossbows were positioned at the bow of each ship, already being reloaded for a second volley. The lead ship had a giant golden warrior straddled to the forward underside where you always saw the statues of chained woman in those old pirate movies. The soldier held his sword high as if leading a glorious charge into battle. The bloke sort of reminded me of Horus. Of course, even on his worst days, I doubted Horus would assault Brooklyn House.

Unfortunately, the incoming triremes held no such reservations.

Reyna's POV

The second battle squadron of the indomitable Roman fleet descended upon the Egyptian stronghold with the _Ultor _leading the way. A volley of ballistae bolts had erupted in emerald flame about a meter from the building, a shimmering shield of _ankhs _expanding outward from the point of impact. Another blast like that would surely cripple the fortress.

But I wanted to seize the base intact. The only way that Jason and I had been able to force Octavian to not interfere with the attempt to send military aid to Camp Half-Blood was to leave New Rome in his hands until our return and promise spoils of war. A giant mansion would certainly count as an effective spoil.

Jason would most defiantly be at least close to reinforcing the Greeks by now. The _Argo IIIs _had a maximum speed of Mach 2 which was how the fleet had crossed the country in under two hours. I smiled, satisfied. With a pair of heavy ballistae as their main weapon and at least a dozen anti- personal Gatling scorpions, not to mention a control system far simpler than its predecessor, the _Argo III _class trireme was as Leo put it "a spankin hot war machine." I smiled at the thought of the friendly repair boy. He was especially friendly to me after all.

Frank Zhang came up behind me. "Your orders _praetor_?" he asked in true military edict, addressing me by rank during combat despite our friendship. For all his initial grumbling, Frank had really grown into his role as a child of Mars though he still used a bow as his go to weapon.

"Will another blast bring down the structure, Centurion?" I inquired.

"Likely _praetor_" he confirmed.

"Can you handle them?" I asked, needing his answer to plot my next move.

The big man paused for a moment, considering his knowledge of his adversaries and estimating their strength. Then he factored in his own abilities and experience. "Yes."

"Then kindly knock."

Surging forward, Frank jumped off the rail of the ship, morphing into an eagle as he fell and streaking towards the Egyptian HQ. I watched him fly to battle; to be the first Roman was inside would gain Zhang a Mural Crown with ease.

Argentum and Aurum padded to my sides. I scratched them behind their metallic ears as they growl menacingly toward the towering stronghold. As the afternoon sunlight glinted of the statue of Mars on the bow, I knew we had come to kill. The House of Life was about to suffer the wrath of the Twelfth Legion.


	10. Chapter 10

The Battle of New York

Chapter 10

Flight of the Kite

Sadie's POV

Note to self: tell Amos that his defensive enchantments SUCK! Seriously, when Carter and I first came to Brooklyn, he told us that the house was nearly impenetrable. Since then and up until this very moment, the mansion has been attacked **three **times. And the defensive barriers have been breached, oh that's right, **three **times. It's as if they never existed at all. Hell, the bloody eagle might as well have flow through an open window.

Oh right, the eagle. Sorry if any of you folks are confused. After I watched the quintet of warships cease their bombardment, I saw a bird like shape descend down one's side and then curve toward the Nome. Squinting, I made out the bold beak and shape talons of you Americans' national bird, the bald eagle. However, unless the demigods had those massive ones from that really long movie with the short guy that has to take the one ring or something to that volcano, I didn't think we were in that much trouble. Still they wouldn't have deployed the bird without a purpose.

Not wanting to be caught unprepared, I used my wand to craft a defensive circle around me though the barrier was rushed and probably wouldn't hold up to anything stronger than a gust of wind. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to put a better defense up as the eagle smashed through the glass window as soon as I completed the magical shield. Surprisingly, the bird flew up to the ceiling instead of making directly for me with its wicked sharp claws. However, the eagle began to enlarge, its feathers becoming duller and more compact, almost like armor or hide. Too late, I realized the avian had transformed into a humongous elephant which was quite unfortunately plummeting towards me like a rock from a skyscraper. I managed to roll out of the massive pachyderm's descent path and avoid sufficient injury. My circle and the floor were not so lucky. The creature's weight and the momentum of its fall shattered both, send huge chunks of limestone flying everywhere.

I was horrified to see what those evil demigods had done to this poor shape shifting animal. At least I was until I walked over to view the damage and a chain saw of a paw came rushing out at me. I was able to hop back and on the edge of the crater I found myself facing a nine foot tall snarling grizzly bear.

Not wanting to fight that thing, I threw my staff at the bear like a spear, except in midair, the stick morphed into an orange and black crossed tiger. My beast landed in front of the foe and began to growl threateningly. Good cat.

The bear wasn't impressed however and laid down to its forepaws and became a zebra striped Bengal tiger. Quickly, letting of a low series of growls, my adversary began to talk to my familiar. The bugger was probably trying to make my loyal creature defect. Fortunately, my animal friend stood by me steadfast. It lunged at the enemy with claws outreached but the zebra tiger dropped to his back and propelled the launch forward. My tiger went skidding across the floor until it struck the wall. The opposing animal now transformed again, this time into a buff boy even larger than Walt with a bow pointed at my tiger with an arrow already notched. With a hiss of air, the shot flew and my beast fell back into a wooden staff, now with an arrow sticking out of the top.

The huge boy turned to me and I got a better look. For one, he was Asian. I'm not racist; it was simply a fact to note. He was only two feet shy of his height in bear form and practically still rippling with muscle. He looked like he could have knocked out Carter or Julian in a round, probably less with my idiot brother. Unfortunately, social hour was going to have to wait until after he was done pointing a bow at me. "Hear me Egyptian scum" he commanded. I objected to being called scum but I got the feeling that I really shouldn't interrupt him. "Frank Zhang is my name so know it well. It is the name of your destroyer. Your house has made a grave error in beginning this war. Now you shall feel the wrath of the Legion!"

I was going to point out that it was one of their people who murdered our initiate but he loosed his arrow at that moment. There was no way I could dodge such a speeding projectile. _I'm dead, _was all I had time to think.

Suddenly, the scene around me changed completely. The incoming arrow of doom vanished along with crazy multi species master, Frank Zhang. Instead, I appeared on the roof next to Walt, Khufu, and the ankle-biters. Our albino crocodile, Philip of Macedonia, was also there giving me his best toothy crocodile grin. Behind me a swirling vortex of sand was floating where our obelisk normally was. Walt was clutching the _shen _amulet that matched the one around my neck that allowed us to teleport each other to our sides. He pointed to the desert tornado behind him. "Portal's ready."

I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding. Once more, I, Sadie Kane, master escape artist, had evaded death by a hair's breath. And this time just because Walt hadn't wanted to walk back down to give me the message. "Nice job" I complimented, not letting him on to just how badly I meant it. "Now let's get out of here before…"

A cheetah blasted through the rooftop access before I could finish my sentence. Within the blink of an eye, the cat was once again a huge grizzly bear. Brave Philip charged at the demigod but with the height advantage, Frank simply swatted him aside. I was really regretting making Carter send Freak the griffin to Amos for a cleaning up the other day. A two ton hummingbird would defiantly come in handy at this junction.

I turned to Walt. "Get the ankle-biters out of here" I ordered. "I'll hold him off."

"Not a chance" he countered. "Khufu can take care of the kids. I'll stay and help you take this sucker down."

I pointed to Long Island, where another five of the flying warships that attacked Brooklyn House were headed. "Those ships going to flank Carter" I pointed out. "Based on what we've seen he can't stand up to them. You can't fly, I can, and you'll just slow me down when I go to warn him. I can't carry you there and those other triremes below us will board the mansion soon. If you stay, even if we beat this psycho shifter, you'll be captured or killed when his backup arrives. There is just too many of them. Please go!"

Walt stood stoically above me. I could see the emotions battling in his heart. First unwavering loyalty to me which conflicted with his knowledge of the obedience he owed me as his superior. Love then crashed in like a tsunami and overruled all arguments. Finally, reason forced everything to look at facts and realize that I was right. So with a final kiss, he jumped into the portal closely followed by the baboon and the ankle-biters who looked quite teary eyed at my heroic last stand. Though if things went my way it would so speak be my **last **stand.

When the vortex closed I acted fast. I thrust my hand out vigorously, letting out a blaze of emerald light that struck Frank like a bat on a baseball. Suddenly I was looking at a perfectly ripe banana slug. I didn't count my chickens yet though and my fears were confirmed when a moment later the bear returned ferocious as ever if not slightly confused. "Yeah, I didn't think that would work but I had to try" I mumbled to the bear, which made me feel crazy.

Frank apparently didn't care and quick as a viper (I wonder if he could turn into one of those?) slashed out at me with his killer paws, raking me across the chest. The wounds didn't cut deep, but they still bloody hurt. Discreetly, I plucked a ball of twine from the Duat and chucked it at the mangy half-blood. "_Tas" _I screamed, and as the hieroglyph for bind flared, the string flew around Frank the not so friendly bear and wrapped him like a Christmas present. Perfect.

I turned to the edge of the roof and concentrated. Slowly, my arms extended into wings and my mouth became a beak. Once again, I was engaging in my least favorite form of travel; flying as a kite (the bird).

I was about to take off when my but began to feel like it was on fire. I swiveled my neck to see that it really was. Where my nice cocooned bear had been restrained a few moments before was an enormous green lizard with scales thicker than walls and a wingspan wider than the Great Room. Flames were bellowing from his mouth.

_A dragon, _I thought incredulously. _He can become a dragon._

Quickly I lifted off from the Twenty-First Nome expecting aerial pursuit any moment. Turning to at least have a fighting chance, I saw the demon demigod suddenly go down and a white shape appear on top of him. _Philip_, I realized. The crocodile had still been on the roof when the portal had disappeared and had been waiting for the opportune moment to strike. He had sacrificed everything to let me get away.

Dousing my rear end in the East River to prevent the flames from spreading to the rest of my plumage, I flew like lightning to Long Island. I arrived too late, for the warships were already unleashing their formidable armaments upon Carter's forces. I landed at his glowing avatar's feet while he and Alyssa faced down a flying blond kid and a Hispanic elf boy. "Carter" I warned him. "We have to get out of here, NOW!"

**REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!**

**PLEASE!**


	11. Chapter 11

The Battle of New York

Chapter 11

Race to the Water

Jason's POV

I hadn't expected the situation at Camp Half-Blood to be as bad as it was when I got there. Nico had told Reyna and me that the situation would be tenuous but he never said anything about the camp being under attack. As soon as I made out Leo and Nyssa, I dived of my flagship, the _Fulminata, _and smashed into the nearest giant hawk warrior. The transforming girl's arrival brought a smile to my face, Reyna and Frank's assault had clearly caught the enemy napping. With their base of operations captured, they had nowhere to run. The Twelfth Legion First Battle Squadron had the enemy fleet cornered. Already, explosions of green and brown were popping up across the afternoon sky. I was so entranced, I didn't notice the girl on the earthen platform snatch the unconscious warrior out from under me and join her apparent leader at the Bunker 9 Cliffside.

I raised my golden _gladius _to the remaining glowing falcon warrior. "Surrender" I demanded. "You have nowhere to run."

"Who said anything about running?" the avatar encased solider taunted. He spiraled in at me with his strange bent sword rushing as a wind of death. I caught the attack on the cross guard of my blade and pushed forward in an airborne charge. Just for affect I sent a few volts of electricity coursing through the saber.

Meanwhile, Leo and Nyssa were unleashing some Hephaestus hurt on the other two girls. The earth manipulator threw up barrier after barrier of rock but Nyssa smashed each one to rubble with her indomitable double bladed battle axe. Leo had pulled out his war hammers and was using them to whip up fire ball after fire ball to annihilate the weak shields the beaten up girl managed to call up. In the skies, triremes were firing off round after round of explosive bolts while their Gatling scorpions were finally in range of the Egyptian gunboats and were laying down a hail of heavy arrows. If the commanders were following standard tactics, then eagle fighters, each manned by a legionnaire specially trained for the job, would be launching soon, each equipped with a ten foot long lance to spear foes from more than three yards away. And with the campers in the forest finally able to defend from the statue warriors without interference from the air, the tide was turning.

My duel with the hawk avatar was turning out to be an annoying little standstill. No matter which style I utilized, Greek or Roman, the warrior's bright gold casing didn't falter. I needed something with a little more power to it. Fortunately, I had such a weapon right up my sleeve. So during a pause in the combat, when we had both recoiled from each other and stood several feet apart, I lowered my sword and let loose a yellow streak of lightning. The bolt caught the warrior off guard and took him in his giant chest. He stumbled backwards and left his center wide open for a killing blow. I made ready to charge.

Suddenly, something hit me on the head. It felt like a good sized rock and I wasn't exactly a fan of those after my experiences with Gaea. When I grabbed the object and looked at it in the palm of my hand, I saw that it was an ornamentally carved bird. Actually, the stone statuette sort of looked like a penguin. I took a total of two seconds to be confused and then the bird exploded in my face and I went into a tree. When I looked up, a row boat with a twelve year old controlling it had wheeled downward, the magicians picking as he went around throwing the tiny penguin rocks. Most of the time, they blew up.

When the four magicians I had arrived to were in the boat (without their giant combat avatars) the wooden vessel sped away to Long Island Sound. I called upon the winds and I launched myself into speedy pursuit. Quickly closing the gap, I raised my _gladius _to let loose another blaze of yellow fire. However, the heavily wounded girl in the boat caught sight of what I was about to do, raised her hand and shouted "_Ha-di." _

At first I thought she'd sneezed or something but golden hieroglyphics suddenly appeared shining on my sword. _This can't be good, _was all I had time to think before the Imperial Gold blade exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb.

Just like when _Ivlivs _had bit the dust against _Enceladus_, Juno's gift unleashed a hellfire of an explosion when it shattered into a thousand pieces. The blast sent me spiraling downwards, falling oh so fast, a stone in the endless sky. Falling oh so fast. I blacked out when I hit the ground.

Carter's POV

I was terrified when Sadie collapsed in the boat. She had probably used a lot of magic during the fight at the Twenty- First Nome and she had only used up more during her brief duel with Leo. Alyssa's earth powers were proving insufficient and I was so exhausted that the fresh warrior Jason had completely outmatched me. If Felix hadn't let loose his combustible penguin bombardment when did, we would have all ended up dead and crispy too if Sadie hadn't scattered lightning boy's sword to the wind. With any luck he had the curtsy to join his beaten blade.

I surveyed the battle and the news was not good. Our gunboats were dropping like flies against the new demigod triremes. I saw Zia launch a fireball at one but a rapid fire archery weapons blew it to cinders before it made contact. In the forest below, the demigods were now able to create tactical formations without hindrance from above. Our forces were quickly being overwhelmed. I knew there was only one option but with Brooklyn House compromised, I didn't know where we could go. Then it hit me. "All forces retreat to the water" I screamed above the winds.

The half a dozen remaining ships heeded my command and barreled for Long Island Sound. The triremes launched their emerald artillery bolts but we managed to escape their range before we could take any more casualties. They were however launching several eagles ridden by muscle warriors with long poles with particularly sharp ends.

Fortunately, the fleet (really a squadron now) touches down in the water before they arrive. _Here goes nothing, _I thought and began chanting. Suddenly my vision deepened and the water funneled into a river. The enemy disappeared and the boats formed up behind me. We later would pop up in the Nile and head to the first Nome, but all that mattered right then and there was that we were safe.


	12. Chapter 12

The Battle of New York

Chapter 12(Five Hours Later)

Aftermath Part One

Jason's POV

It was night when I stood over Piper's unconscious form as she laid on a bed in the infirmary, just as I had so long ago when she had passed out in the Hera Cabin. Her brown hair flowed around her face like a river of chocolate, framing her beautiful features as they rolled like majestic hillsides. My palm glided across her marble smooth check. She looked so serene, content, as if she was simply immersed in a deep rest instead of a near death coma. The medics, both Apollo campers and Legion doctors, assured me she would live but couldn't tell me if she would ever wake up. A single tear rolled down my face and I silently swore that I would hunt down the scum bag magician who fired the sapphire lightning bolt that Annabeth told me about and make them wish for something as merciful as Tartarus.

In the closed palm of my fist, I fiddled with an uneven gold coin. It was _Ivlivs Duo, _my new weapon. I recalled when I had been in the infirmary for only half an hour, simply staring at my girlfriend's fallen form. Leo had entered nervously, afraid I might be angered by his entrance into my solemn rage. "What is it?" I asked without turning around.

He didn't stumble in his step until he was standing beside me. His mouth struggled to get out words that wouldn't sound hollow and fake. In the end, he settled on, "Dude, I'm sorry."

"Don't be" I told him. "None of this was your fault."

"But I was standing right there" he stressed. "I should have been able to do something to help her. Instead, both she and Chiron went down and I couldn't even scratch the damn Egyptians. I wasn't even able to get the fleet in the air before you arrived and now because of my inability to act, twenty campers are dead and fifty others are down with wounds. That's nearly half the camp."

"No one blames you" I promised him. "You did everything you could and saved dozens of lives. There is not a person in the world I'd rather go to war with."

He got a fraction of his old humor and grin back. "Not even Piper."

Ah, he caught me there. "Alright" I reconsidered. "No other guy."

We both chuckled slightly, relieving at least some of the tension in the room. We looked at each other. We'd been on so many adventures together, seen so much. We knew each other better than brothers and could tell the other's feelings just by a glance. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. Then he grabbed my hand and placed the object inside. "Here" he said. "I was hoping to give this to you under happier circumstances, probably your birthday, but the bruised girl blew up Juno's _gladius _so it would seem you're out a sword."

I opened up my curled hand and gapped at the half dollar sized golden circle in it. Returning my eyes to my little imp friend, I stuttered. "How did you remake this? _Euceladus _blew it into a thousand pieces."

"I didn't remake the original one" Leo admitted. "I couldn't find all the shards when I went back to Mt. Diablo a few months after the Giant War ended. But I did recover a couple essential components. I asked around the Lars until one of them was able to give me the design. So I scraped together as much Imperial Gold as I could find and started forging. This was the end result."

I flipped the coin through the air, my arm elated to perform the familiar motion once again. When the object descended, it was a two foot long golden sword the fit my hand perfectly. I took a few test swings to get a feel for the blade that was so familiar and yet so distant. The saber was as perfectly balanced as I remembered. "Thank you Leo."

My friend rubbed his hand nervously on the back of his head. "Actually, it's not my finest work. I couldn't figure out how to get the javelin mode to work without compromising the sword mode. What you see is all you're going to get."

I smiled uncaringly. "It's perfect my friend. You've out done yourself."

The remaining traces of fear dissolved into his veins. Leo joined in my smile. "You're welcome Jason" he responded.

I turned the new blade back into a coin and went back to sulking above Piper. Leo took the hint and walked out to make plans for the coming storm.

Leo's POV

After I gave Jason his early birthday present, I went to the beach to meet someone under the star lit sky. She stood with her back to me, gazing out over the glass shone water, her raven hair cascading down her back like a waterfall. I came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. My lips came down to meet the cool flesh of her neck. "Hello gorgeous" I whispered in her ear.

She turned in my grasped and responded to my little peck on the neck with passionate kiss on the lips. She had exchanged her legionnaire armor for Camp Jupiter's standard purple t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Her lips were like ivory to touch and her body gleamed in the moonlight. The twin greyhound bodyguards were nowhere to be seen. Even without them by her side, Reyna was beautiful.

When she finally pulled away, she asked "What took you so long Repair Boy?"

My pet name sounded smooth and complimentary off her tongue. She had heard Piper tease me by it a while back and had taken to it. I was annoyed when Piper called me that. When Reyna said the words, I couldn't think of anything sweeter.

"I had to talk to Jason" I told. "What happened to Piper really shook him up. I tried to comfort him but there wasn't much I could do."

Reyna stood there on the pearl like sands contemplating her next words. "He needs time Leo" she told me. "He was like this once before after a tragedy occurred that killed a very dear friend of his. Sometimes we can soften the hurt, but in the end all we can do is let him recover. And of course, bring down the hammer on the foolish magician who attacked Piper during a diplomatic meeting."

I smiled at the thought. But somewhere in the back of my mind, something was banging inside trying to get my attention. I had missed a very important detail about what Reyna just said. Something that connected to what I witnessed earlier. But I couldn't figure out what.

_It's not important, _a voice in my mind said. _Enjoy the moment. This is the calm before the storm after all. _

The voice sounded strangely trustworthy and didn't have eerie cold of an _eidolon, _so I believed it. Besides, I wanted to spend as much time with Reyna as possible.

"Come on" I beckoned, holding out my arm like an old timey gentleman. "The Leo Cave awaits my fair lady."

**Review Please!**

**Also, any Leyna fans who read this tell me if they like that scene.**


	13. Chapter 13

The Battle of New York

Chapter 13 (Same time as Chp. 12)

Aftermath Part Two

Carter's POV

We had gotten our asses handed to us today. Of around seventy magicians that left Brooklyn House that morning, only twelve remained and only Felix had escaped the battle unscarred. My wounds had been minor an easily healed by the First Nome's doctors. Sadie wasn't so lucky.

My sister had sustained multiple infected scratches and cuts that Jaz told me were from so kind of bird of prey. Her lower body was black and brittle from massive third degree burns. But most perilously, she had powered her final spell, the _ha-di _that destroyed the blond guy's gold sword and caused the explosion that nearly blew us out of the air, with her life force. Quite a lot of it too.

Walt was devastated. He kept blaming himself and scolding himself. "I should have stayed with her. She'd be fine if I'd just stayed and helped." Even when the healers informed him that he needed to leave the sick bay so they could work, the big guy refused to leave her side. After everything that had happened, I couldn't muster the courage to order him to get some rest. I don't think he would have listened even if I had.

Right now, I was standing before my own throne in the Hall of Ages. The walls on either side of me rippled as if taunting me to reclaim the crook and flail I had left on the chair after the defeat of Apophis. With the weapons of the pharaoh, I could crush the puny demigods even with their little flying boats.

Of course, that kind of power had a price. Like being a god's Eye, the crook and flail were addicting and once I took them putting them down again would be more than exceptionally difficult. The weapons were an awesome responsibility and were only to be used in time of great crisis.

"Not yet" I whispered to myself. "Not that bad yet"

"A wise choice" a familiar voice confirmed behind me. I turned to see my uncle Amos stood behind me in the hall, wearing crimson magician robes and the leopard skin cape of the Chief Lector. A scarlet fedora rested on his head while rubies decorated his dark braids. "Many a ruler before you turned to the crook and flail for every conflict and their natural leadership abilities decayed from lack of usage."

I looked at my uncle in the Duat. He was a shining red warrior in rose armor, standing proudly at attention. Amos had absorbed Set best qualities of loyalty to the duly appointed pharaoh and ingenuity while remaining ambitionless. "Send a message to every Nome worldwide" I ordered. "We are at war."

I walked out of the mile long hall, away from the purple hue of an age I had thought would be paradise.

Annabeth's POV

I will give the Romans this; where we have massive amounts of ingenuity, they are unequaled in productivity. In the time after the Giant War, a mere year, Camp Half-Blood was able to upgrade the _Argo II _and build four additional _Argo IIIs_, Camp Jupiter had made itself eleven warships, five for each _praetor _to command in the battle fleet and one more for an ever present home guard that remained watchful over New Rome at all times.

I was standing at the now wide open entrance of Bunker Nine, standing back as a silent sentinel while Frank and Clarisse argued over how best to launch the navy as Hazel desperately tried to meditate the dispute. I knew I should probably go over and smack so sense into Clarisse but I was lost in thought.

Why had Carter come here? I hadn't been thinking clearly during the meeting, the stress of Percy's second disappearance heavily affecting my judgment, but with my theory there was no reason for Carter to bring his forces to camp at all. If he had kidnapped Percy, why bring a military force and ask that we hand him over. The whole concept didn't work.

Slowly, I was piecing together the most likely scenario. Someone inside the House of Life framed Percy for murder and then somehow hypnotized him into walking into the portal I last saw him go through. The traitor then let the Egyptian scouts tell Carter about their skirmish with the new demigod while keeping Percy's presence a secret. Next, they obediently went with the assault force to Camp Half-Blood and when peace negotiations started to show unwanted results, he blasted the most effective mediators, Piper and Chiron. Due to the direction of the lightning's origin, we would be led to assume that the strike had happened on Carter's orders and attack. The resulting commotion on the beach led the waiting strike force to believe that negotiations had broken down and they should begin the attack on the camp. And the mastermind's plan worked perfectly.

There was no use in belittling myself. What was done was done and war was unavoidable. At the campfire earlier in the night, the gods had told us that if we went to war that they could not directly interfere lest they unleash the Egyptian Gods upon us in turn. Never the less, too many demigods had been slain by the vile magicians and their heartless soldiers of stone. A counterstrike was not even a pressed option; it was an obligation to our fallen comrades.

The enemy headquarters that had been captured in Brooklyn was ransacked and ancient runes we found in Chiron's texts were now in place to ward off any incoming portals. The Roman Engineer Corp was already working on a demolition device to send the entire building sky high. Even if the enemy did return, all they would find were smoking ruins.

Most campers who weren't working on the fleet's mobilization were asleep in their cabins (or what was left of them). But as I watched the triremes take to the air, headed by the familiar sight of the _Argo II_, I knew the war that was coming would bring a world they wouldn't want to wake up to.

Villian's POV

I laughed at the unbelievable ease the two factions had gone to war. A little electric shock quickly delivered to that rather pretty girl (Note: if she doesn't die from her wounds, make her a concubine when ruling the world.) and the horse man (Additional Note: Make the little pony into glue for all the trouble he caused me in the 70s) and the blond chick rushed in to trade blows with Carter. I left after that and returned to my nice secret hide away. It didn't matter how the battle went. Either way, I had my power generator.

Turning to my black haired unconscious friend who was lying stone flat on the floor next to a couple of stray grains of crimson sand, I couldn't help but smile. Even for me the plan was absolutely brilliant. I needed a new body and this presented a unique opportunity for an upgrade. I picked up my, oh so precious book and began to prepare the demigod's form. The required preparations would take months to undertake but the spell's newly created power source needed that much time to build enough strength anyway. Soon infinite power would be mine and no god or mortal would be able to stop me. In six months, just six short months.

**And that is a rap people.**

**Look out for the sequel: Strike at Red Sands.**

**Also my greatest apologies for the delay, school is incredibly annoying.**

**Anyway, REVIEW!**


End file.
